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Obama blames al-Qaeda for Christmas Day jet 'bomb'

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Uploaded by on Jan 2, 2010

http://www.timesofearth.com/Worldnews/?NT=0&nid=15370 HONOLULU, Hawaii — The US president has for the first time said that al-Qaeda was behind the attempted bombing of a Christmas Day flight to Detroit.
Barack Obama's comments, posted on the White House website on Saturday, come amid Republican accusations that he has not done enough to prevent attacks on the US.

"It appears that he [the bombing suspect] joined an affiliate of al-Qaeda, and that this group - al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America."

US officials had not before said publicly that the attempted attack was the work of al-Qaeda, though they had noted a "linkage" with the group.

Days after the attack, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had claimed it was behind the attempt.

Obama vowed to hold the group to account for the attack, saying the US was at war with its "far-reaching network of violence and hatred".

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, is accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit using explosives concealed in his underpants. He was overpowered by other passengers.

In his address, Obama said he had received preliminary results of reviews he ordered into air travel screening procedures and a "terrorist watchlist system", with final results expected in the next few days.
Obama used much of his address to outline his administration's efforts to keep the US citizens safe -including withdrawing troops from Iraq, boosting troop levels in Afghanistan and boosting ties with Yemen, where Abdulmutallab had spent time.

The president has summoned his intelligence chiefs to a meeting at the White House next week to discuss how to prevent a repeat of the attempted bombing.

Separately, Dennis Blair, the US director of national intelligence, warned his staff that al-Qaeda attacks were sure to get more "cunning".

"Al-Qaeda and its affiliate organisations, as well as individual suicide terrorists, have observed our defences and are designing future attacks to circumvent them," he said.

"These attacks will be even harder to uncover, interpret, and stop."

The Reuters news agency reported an unnamed US official as saying that at least four months ago, the US National Security Agency had intercepted communications between al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen discussing the possibility of using a "Nigerian" bomber.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) first learnt of Abdulmutallab in November, when his father came to the US embassy in Nigeria and sought help in finding him, a spokesman said.

The agency said it then worked with the embassy to add Abdulmutallab and his possible Yemeni contacts to the US "terrorism database" and forwarded biographical information about him to the National Counterterrorism Center.

The December 25 attack attempt has focused international attention on Yemen, where al-Qaeda is thought to run a number of training camps.

Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has said he will hold a meeting in London on January 28 to discuss how to counter radicalisation in Yemen.


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Copyright 2010 THE TIMES OF EARTH (TOE). All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • the bomber was a sleeper, under hypnosis by the CIA in a sharp siut who was sitting next to him on the plane. the witnesses can tell who that his behavoiur was almost lifeless, glazed eyes and no facial expression as he was ambushed.

  • @Enferushostis Americans in general are gullible, naive, and ignorant.

  • FUCKING LIES!!!!!! It was a planned bombscare to get new scanners in airports. The man got on the plane without a fucking ticket, how the fuck can anyone get through check in without a ticket? he was filmed by one of the "passengers" from start to finish. Did a bomb go off?.........NO..........Were new airport xray scanners introduced? YES................ Shit, America, if this is what you really believe, then you are way off the reality line

  • @blackjerryboymetal I HAVE A KORAN, AND I READ A PAGE EVERY MORNING !!!

    RIGHT B-4 I USE IT TO CLEAN MY DIRTY, STINKY, POO BUTT.

  • WOW,...KNOWING NOW, THAT HE IS TOTALLY LYING, JUST LOOK AT HIS FACE, WHILE HE SPEAKS !

    HE'S NO POKER PLAYER.

    VERY BAD LYING JOB !

  • @blackjerryboymetal There is no place in the Qur'an in Arabic that says that as you allege here. Your hate is one thing and your facts are another, and both are wrong!

  • @NCMan28025 the shoe bomber richard reed also tried to blow up a plane with his shoes in the UK.

  • they dont watch or know shit. They had info before the x mas bomber even hit even the day they knew it and didnt do shit. Homeland Security is a joke!!!!!!!!!!!

  • i wonder if they would touch their mothers arse like that..! obviously still pissed off about the xmas day bombing..still getting it wrong.

  • what now they are getting people to come in the shop and touch my arse, keep doing it, its a clever thing to do, i can why terrorists get away with things...keep concentrating on me and you will go far! axelle_rose

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